Craig
McCulloch, Deputy Political Editor
A year
on from the Ministry for Regulation’s creation, the average
salary for its staff continues to top $150,000 – well above
the sector-wide average of just over $100,000.
New
figures, as of 28 March, record an average annual salary at
the agency of $150,320 across 70 permanent staff and 17
fixed-term staff.
That compares to a figure of
$152,034 reported in August last year – which at the time prompted
outrage from opposition parties and the Taxpayers’
Union.
Back then, Regulation Minister David
Seymour defended the pay packets as “good value for money”
but said he expected they would drop as the ministry became
more established and temporary roles were replaced with
permanent ones.
In a fresh statement to RNZ, Seymour
maintained the position.
“I note the average salary
has gone down slightly, and I expect this will continue as
the agency is bedded in,” Seymour said.
“The Ministry
for Regulation staff make up 0.14 per cent of the public
sector. When you look at the job they have improving and
preventing unnecessary regulations, that’s 0.14 per cent of
the public service trying to control the other 99.86 per
cent.”
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The latest salary figures were released in
answers to written Parliamentary questions from the Labour
Party.
Labour’s regulation spokesperson Duncan Webb
said the anti-red tape department had been bedding in for
more than a year now and, despite the minister’s assurances,
salaries had barely budged.
“I’ve got no problem with
top quality public servants being paid well, but what we’ve
got here is a vanity ministry for David Seymour which is
basically full of clipboard-holders who are checking on
other public servants.
“It’s absolutely hypocritical
for the government to be saying we need to get rid of back
office people when they’ve created a whole back office
ministry.”
In the year to June 2024, the average
salary across the public sector was $101,700, the first time
it had reached six figures.
The top-paying public
sector agency was the Public Service Commission, with an
average salary of $155,000, followed by the Social
Investment Agency, with $149,200.
The Ministry for
Regulation was set up in March 2024 after being secured by
the ACT Party during coalition negotiations the year
before.
It is tasked with assessing red-tape across a
range of sectors and driving a “culture shift” across
government, Seymour has said.
Opposition parties have
criticised the new department since its creation, claiming a
double standard for Seymour at a time the coalition is
slashing back-office spending across the public
sector.
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